The Chef Who Still Checks Every Plate That Comes Back
Every chef wants guests to finish their food.
Chef Wish watches the plates that come back to the kitchen.
Not casually. Not out of curiosity.
She studies them.
Was the sauce too salty? Did the steak turn cold? Why did someone leave half the soup untouched?
Even today, after nearly twenty years in professional kitchens, she still asks those questions every single service.
“If a plate comes back unfinished, I want to know why,” she says. “Maybe the guest was full. But maybe something was wrong. I need to know.”
It is this quiet intensity that defines Chef Wish, Wichuda Hongsakum, Sous Chef at Café Claire, the Parisian Bistro inside the beautiful Oriental Residence Bangkok.
Soft spoken and deeply introverted by nature, she does not fit the stereotype of the loud television chef commanding attention in a busy kitchen. In fact, if given the choice, she would still rather stay behind the stove than step into the dining room.
But behind her calm personality is someone fiercely demanding of herself, constantly chasing the idea that every dish can always be better.
“The food may already be good,” she says. “But I always feel it can improve.”
That pressure began early.
When she first entered a hotel kitchen as a trainee in Bangkok, she was completely unprepared for the physical exhaustion waiting for her. Long hours. Endless standing. Heavy lifting. Heat. Noise. Pressure.
“The first week, my legs were swollen,” she remembers. “My back hurt constantly. I cried and wondered when I could go home.”
At the time, she was not even studying culinary arts. She had enrolled in tourism and hotel management and originally trained in Human Resources before being pulled into kitchen operations to help during busy shifts.
One moment she was assisting with hotel administration.
The next, she was slicing fruit for twelve hours straight inside a cold preparation room.
“I remember thinking, how do people survive this every day?” she says with a laugh.
Yet something kept pulling her back to the kitchen.
Perhaps it was curiosity. Perhaps stubbornness. Or perhaps it was the discovery that kitchens reward people who never stop learning.
Because Chef Wish did not grow up dreaming of becoming a chef.
In fact, as a child in Sakon Nakhon, she did not particularly enjoy cooking at all. She simply learned because her parents expected her to help at home.
But once she entered professional kitchens, she became fascinated by detail.
Why does soup taste deeper after hours of slow cooking?
Why does adding butter at the wrong temperature ruin a sauce?
Why does one chef’s onion soup taste richer than another’s even with the same ingredients?
Those questions shaped her career.
Today, that obsession with detail defines the French cooking philosophy at Oriental Residence Bangkok’s Café Claire.
Working alongside the French Executive Chef Rémi Verrier, Chef Wish has spent the past year adapting to a style of cooking that demands extraordinary patience.
Stocks simmer for three days.
Onion soup cooks for up to eight hours.
Duck skin is dried carefully over two full days for the perfect crisp texture.
“It taught me that French cooking is really about care,” she says. “Every step matters.”
The transition was not easy.
When Chef Rémi first arrived, the two struggled badly. Different cultures. Different personalities. Different communication styles.
“There were moments when I wondered if I should quit,” she admits with a smile.
Chef Rémi, younger than her and intensely driven, approached the kitchen with demanding standards and strong opinions. At first, their personalities clashed constantly.
But instead of walking away, Chef Wish chose something harder. She stayed.
“We had to learn how to understand each other,” she says. “I realised that if we wanted the kitchen to improve, we needed to move in the same direction.”
Slowly, respect replaced tension.
Today, the pair operate like two halves of the same machine. Chef Rémi drives creativity and ambition. Chef Wish keeps the kitchen grounded, organised, and moving forward.
If he is the visionary, she is the stabilising force behind the scenes.
“He supports everything,” she says simply. “And I support him too.”
That teamwork became critical during one of the kitchen’s most difficult periods.
At one point, the kitchen was going through a period of major change. New standards were introduced. Systems became more detailed. Expectations grew higher. Some team members struggled with the pressure and decided the environment was no longer the right fit for them.
For Chef Wish, helping guide the team through that transition became one of the hardest challenges of her career.
“The difficult part is people,” she says honestly. “Everyone thinks differently. Everyone handles pressure differently.”
As an introvert who prefers avoiding conflict, leadership did not come naturally to her. Yet she learned that protecting standards for guests sometimes means being strict with her team.
Her team even jokes that she is “the teacher of discipline” in the kitchen.
But beneath that reputation is someone deeply protective of both guests and staff.
For Chef Wish, standards are not about ego. They are about responsibility.
Clean kitchens matter.
Safe food matters.
Consistency matters.
Because somewhere beyond the kitchen doors, a guest is trusting someone they have never met to prepare their meal properly.
That trust matters most of all.
Outside work, Chef Wish lives almost the opposite life from the intensity of the kitchen. She stays home, listens to podcasts, avoids crowds, and rarely cooks on her days off.
Years ago, she even tried turning her love of baking into a side business selling cakes and cookies online. But eventually, she stopped.
“I realised I was never truly resting,” she says.
Now, she protects her quiet time carefully.
Still, the kitchen never fully leaves her mind.
Every service. Every sauce. Every returned plate.
Somewhere in the back of her thoughts, Chef Wish is still asking herself the same question she has chased since her earliest days in the kitchen: Can this dish be even better?
Story: Sue Rattanamahattana • Photography: Poonsawat Sudtama
ABOUT HEARTMADE
Created to celebrate the 60th anniversary of ONYX Hospitality Group, Heartmade is a series of heartfelt stories inspired by the people who make every stay memorable, from dedicated team members to cherished guests across Amari, OZO, Shama, Oriental Residence, as well as our spa and dining brands.
Through personal memories, meaningful connections, and moments of genuine care, the series celebrates the warmth and spirit of hospitality that have brought people together for six decades. Stay tuned for more inspiring stories from the Heartmade series.